


A dance for one

by wendywhite13



Series: Earthlings [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fan Fusion, First Time Gem Fusion, Gem Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Original Female Character - Freeform, Post-Canon, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind, Slow Burn, idiots to lovers, jaspearl - Freeform, tiger's eye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-19 13:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 9,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17602379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendywhite13/pseuds/wendywhite13
Summary: Uncorrupted, Jasper finds herself unable to deal with the truth of what really happened to Pink Diamond. Pearl thinks she can help, and the two find out they have more in common than they could have guessed.





	1. The reunion

“So do you know where the gems that decided to stay on Earth are gonna go?” Steven asked, putting down the guitar and turning to Garnet. She looked thoughtful and adjusted her visor.  
“Well, a lot of them are going to the forge with Bismuth. We had an old hideout there that a lot of them called home. Some of the ones that took fishlike forms are returning to the sea…I think the Heaven and Earth beetles are returning to their little house on the floating islands. And…that’s funny. I think there’s one up on the cliff over there.” She pointed towards the lighthouse.  
“Who?” asked Steven, a little excitedly. He hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to all of the different healed gems before some of them had left.  
“Hmmm…could be a couple different ones. I’m not sure.” Garnet frowned.  
Steven stood up immediately and patted the sand off his pants. “Well, I’m gonna go welcome her to Earth, properly! Do you wanna come?”  
Amethyst started to stand up, but Garnet put a hand on her shoulder. “Whoever it is, she went up there because she wants to be alone, Steven. Not everybody is…able to easily digest what happened. Maybe we should leave her alone.”  
Steven frowned. “Well, if she’s upset…I don’t wanna leave her there…I’ll just go up there and ask her how she is, and if she doesn’t want to talk, then I’ll leave.”  
Garnet smiled at that, giving a slight nod. Taking that as his cue, Steven jumped up into the air, floating gently up to the lighthouse hill.  
“Hellooooo,” Steven called. It was difficult to tell in the dark if there was anyone there or not. Walking around to the other side of the lighthouse, however, he saw a familiar silhouette. Then he stopped. It was a very familiar silhouette.  
“Ja…Jasper?”


	2. Confession

“Oh,” came a soft voice. “It’s you.”  
It was definitely Jasper, but her voice sounded different. It had lost its hard edge. Now it sounded flat. And…defeated. “Um…yeah…,” Steven started uncomfortably. “You-uh…you know who I am, right?”  
At that there was a soft rumble of laughter. “You worried I’ll attack you again? No need.” Her head drooped. “Amethyst told me everything. Pink Diamond isn’t dead, she’s Rose Quartz and you are…her…creation. Something she loved. Something she treasured.” There was a sharp intake a breath in the dark. “I almost killed you so many times…. Imagine. The only thing left of her in this world…”  
“Ah, yeah, well…” This was way more awkward that Steven had prepared for. “No harm done!” He tried to put a little levity in his voice but it sounded fake even to him, and Jasper didn’t respond. “So…what are you doing still here? I figured you’d’ve gone back with Yellow.”  
“Why.” It wasn’t a question. The voice sounded exhausted.  
“Well, you had a…job. You seemed to like it. Um…” Why hadn’t she gone back? Didn’t Jasper hate Earth? “And it’s…your home, right?”  
“I had a duty. I served Yellow because I thought she had taken revenge on the one who killed my real diamond. I owed her for doing what I was unable to do. I stayed on Earth to hunt you down because I realized Rose Quartz wasn’t dead. Now…now I have no duty at all. Nothing.” Steven opened his mouth to say something-he wasn’t sure what but he had to say something-but Jasper spoke again. “And that-place was never my home. Earth was an embarrassment on Homeworld. No one associates with gems from that colony. No...this planet was my home once. And…it was the world Pink Diamond loved.”  
Steven cautiously sat down next to her. “So what are you going to do?”  
Jasper looked down. “Find a warp pad. Head to the Beta Kindergarten. That’s were I was made…maybe I belong there.”  
“That…sounds really lonely,” Steven frowned. “Maybe…you could stay with us for a while? You said I’m all that’s left of Pink Diamond, but that’s not true! Her court’s here, and Pearl…“  
He was interrupted by a peal of laughter. “Stay with you? Here? Don’t make me laugh, little one. I’m your enemy. I almost killed every single person down there at least once. I don’t belong with you.”  
“Well, hey, that’s no reason we can’t be friends,” Steven laughed a little. “Peridot and Lapis both tried to kill me before too! And Amethyst really wants you back.”  
“Heh. Can’t figure that one out.” The thought seemed to bring a tiny smile to Jasper’s face. “After everything I did…I was so angry. I took it out on her because she looked just as weak as I—" She stopped suddenly. “She keeps calling me ‘sister’ and asking if I want to ‘join the Famethyst’. I have no idea what that means.”  
“Well, it means she wants you to be part of her family,” Steven replied. “A family is like…a group of people that all care about each other and take care of each other. Even if they’re angry at each other. Or sad.” He looked up at Jasper hopefully. But her face had darkened.  
“Take care of each other, huh? No matter what?” Her voice was still soft, but there was a slight hitch in it as she spoke. “You know that was what I promised Pink Diamond, right? That I would protect her at any cost. She would never have to worry as long as I was there.”  
“Six thousand years I thought that she was shattered. And I couldn’t stop wondering—did she see it coming? Did it hurt?” Jasper put her head in one massive hand, and Steven was surprised to hear a soft sob. “And I wondered…was she thinking of me when she died? About how I promised to protect her? Was she wondering where I was? Why I had let her down? For six thousand years, I hated myself for failing her.”  
“And now everything’s great, because I find out that was alive the whole time! No need to worry. She didn’t die, in pain and alone, thinking that I had abandoned her. She was alive…and she wasn’t thinking about me at all.” Jasper looked up, tears running down her face and glittering in the moonlight. Steven gently put a hand on her arm. But she quickly pulled away from him, standing up and backing away.  
“Don’t you see? I can’t stay with you. Your…mother…knew me best and she knew I was no good. She let me think she was dead so she could get rid of me! And you know what? She was right! I am no good!” Her breath caught in a sob. “I’m terrible. I hurt you and all of your friends and if I stay here I’ll hurt them again. Just…forget about me.” And she turned at leapt off the cliff. Steven heard a rumble below and ran to the edge, but Jasper was gone.  
“Steven,” came a voice behind him. He turned to see Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl coming around from behind the lighthouse.  
“You guys?” Steven tried to keep the tremor out of his voice. “What are you doing here?”  
“I was that one of the gems that might be up here was Jasper. I thought we’d follow, just to make sure…” she trailed off, but Steven knew what she meant. To make sure that Jasper wouldn’t attack him again. “I guess I shouldn’t have been worried.”  
“I can’t believe she just ran off like that!” interrupted Amethyst. “We talked for so long yesterday and I thought she got that I forgave her. I guess I should have explained what a sister was though.” She scratched her head uncomfortably. “I just…thought we were getting along.”  
“Well, we’ve got to go after her,” Steven replied. “There’s no way Pink Diamond meant to hurt her like that, right? Some one has to tell her—”  
“Steven, remember what you promised me,” Garnet said quickly. “That if whoever was up here said they wanted to be left alone, you would leave them alone. You can’t fix everybody. And you shouldn’t have to.”  
“But—”  
“I’ll go after her.” Pearl had been standing towards the back, but she suddenly stepped forward. “I think I know something that will help her. But I’m going to go alone.”  
Garnet considered that. “Yeah,” she conceded finally. “I see that working. You could give it a shot.”  
“Alright.” Pearl knelt down by Steven, putting her hands on his shoulders. “Don’t worry about this. I’m going to take care of it. I’m sure I can calm her down.” She gave him a strange look, almost excited, and then she was gone over the edge of the cliff.


	3. Sleep it off

Steven paced anxiously around his room, stopping every few minutes to peek out the windows. “Don’t you think they’ve been gone a while?” he asked finally, turning to Garnet.  
“What I think is that you need to sleep,” Garnet replied, looking supremely unworried. “You’ve been up all night, and we just got out of the crisis on Homeworld. You need to take some time for yourself.”  
“I know, but…” Steven rubbed his eyes. “I’m worried about Pearl. And Jasper…wasn’t okay. Can you just…use your future vision a little to check if everything’s alright?”  
Garnet sighed, but she adjusted her visor. After a few moments, she said, “I predict…that if you go to sleep right now, everything will be settled by the time you wake up. And if you try to keep Pearl and Jasper in your thoughts, it might turn out extra well. Alright?”  
Steven frowned at that, but Garnet never lied, so he trudged up the stairs to the new bedroom Bismuth had built for him. “How am I supposed to fall asleep when I’m so worr—” and he broke off in a gentle snore.   
Amethyst snorted while Garnet smiled knowingly.


	4. The Eye

“Um…Garnet? Hello? Where am I?” Steven called.  
His bedroom was gone. Instead, he stood in a strange, dark hallway where the walls twisted and curled around him. The ceiling was black and dotted with tiny lights like stars.  
No, they were stars. He was outside, and this wasn’t a hallway but a canyon. A slot canyon, narrow and tight, like…the Beta Kindergarten. So…maybe this was a dream, then. He was dreaming about the Kindergarten because he and Jasper had talked about it before he’d fallen asleep.  
Except it wasn’t quite the Beta Kindergarten, though. There were no holes, for one thing, and the canyon walls and floor weren’t rocky but smooth as glass. They weren’t red either, but black and dark brown, and streaked with long veins of glowing gold. Up close, they were beautiful.  
“Whoa,” he said, drawing nearer to one of the walls. Dozens of colors shot through its smooth surface, all variants of the gold and black. He reached out to touch it—  
And immediately leapt back. Under the glassy surface was the unmistakable feeling of a heartbeat. Carefully, he put his hand on it again. There it was, soft but steady, and as he watched, the glowing colors of the rock pulsed in time with the beat. And moving his hand from side to side, he could definitely feel the beat growing stronger to the left.  
“Alllllright…” Steven looked around but there was no one in sight to explain it. “Maybe if I follow the creepy wall heartbeat I’ll figure out what’s going on?”  
So he did. The slot canyon was a maze of identical, branching paths, but the heartbeat and the pulse of golden light grew stronger and stronger the further in he went. Eventually the dark canyon was lit with a soft golden glow and the pulse was strong enough that the mysterious heart felt like it could be just on the other side of the wall. Steven was just about to call out again when he heard soft voices talking together, just beyond the corner. Quietly, not knowing what to expect, he looked around.  
Laying half-propped up on the canyon wall, half on the ground, was Jasper. She had her back turned to him, but he recognized the giant floof of hair and the horns left by her corruption. Her colors seemed to have been changed though, reflecting the soft gold and brown color scheme of the canyon. Something about that seemed familiar, but Steven couldn’t quite place it. Just as he was trying to figure it out, Jasper spoke again. Her voice didn’t have the harsh edge he knew from fighting her, or the resigned sadness of their conversation on the cliffside. It was gentle, almost happy sounding.  
“I just…I never knew it could feel this good. I thought it was meant to hurt, that it had to hurt so you could be strong. But I feel stronger than I ever have, and…I feel so happy here.”  
“Oh, Jasper,” came a familiar voice, and another figure rose up from behind the bulk of Jasper’s silhouette. Pearl, cast in shades of gold, looked down at the other gem with a gentle expression. “This is how it’s supposed to feel.” She leaned down, closing her eyes, until her face was almost to Jasper’s and Steven realized very suddenly what was going on—  
“AAHH PEARL I DON’T THINK I’M SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!” yelped Steven, his face as red as his shirt. He still wasn’t exactly sure what was happening but he was absolutely sure that whatever it was, it was private.  
Pearl froze, her eyes wide and a dull orange blush spreading across her face. Jasper leapt to her feet with surprising agility. Strangely, the massive gem’s jump didn’t shake the ground like it usually did. The glassy floor of the canyon was stronger than it looked.  
“Steven—how are you—how can you possibly be here? Are you really here?” She ran to him and patted him gently, as though she was expecting him to be a hologram.  
“He is here. I’ve seen him do this before.” Both Steven and Pearl turned. Jasper was watching him warily. “When I was…in Malachite, he appeared. Talked to Lapis. I thought it was another hallucination, but…I guess it’s just another one of his abilities. He can get into this space somehow.”  
Pearl eyes widened in understanding but Steven was still confused. “What do you mean, ‘this space?’ Where are we? What does this have to do with Malachite?”  
Pursing her lips, Pearl turned back to him. “Steven, this space is…us. Our minds. We…fused. And, it seems that you somehow found us, just like how you were able to communicate with Lapis and Jasper in a dream, you…found your way here.”  
“Wait! You-you fused?” Steven’s eyes widened with wonder. He never tired of hearing about new fusions, and this was one he never expected. “How? When? Why?”  
Another little blush touched Pearl’s cheeks, but this time, she smiled and looked over at Jasper. To Steven’s surprise, Jasper gave a little smile too.  
“It wasn’t something we planned,” said Pearl, nervously brushing her hair back over her ear. “It just felt right. It’s kind of a complicated story. Maybe…it would be better if she told it.”  
“She?” Steven asked excitedly.  
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Jasper suddenly. “I just left there, and I’m sure no one wants to see me again…and bringing her there…it feels…”  
Pearl walked over to Jasper and put one small hand on her shoulder. “What are you afraid of? I know how…proud of her you are. They’ll love her. I promise.” She leaned closer, and whispered so softly that Steven could barely hear it: “This isn’t like Malachite. This is something we built together, and she’s wonderful.”  
A soft orange glow built on Jasper’s cheeks, and Steven was surprised to realize the big gem was blushing. “That Ruby and Sap—Garnet, is going to be absolutely insufferable about this whole thing. And…I feel uncomfortable taking her to see Lapis.”  
Pearl smiled. “I think maybe Garnet earned the right to be a little insufferable. And I think you can put up with her teasing. Besides, I think Garnet really will be happy for you. For us. As for Lapis…she’s a big gem, she’ll find a way to deal with us. It might do her good to see you in a stable fusion. This time, you made a good fusion with someone who actually cares about you. Who…you care about…” She said the last line a little uncertainly. The recalcitrant expression disappeared from Jasper’s face, her features softening into something surprisingly gentle. She took Pearl’s hand and said, “Alright. I’ll do it.”  
“We’ll do it. Together.” Pearl replied, smilingly.  
“All right!” Steven yelled out, grinning from ear to ear. The other two gems, apparently so caught up in their discussion that they’d forgotten he was there, jumped. Then Pearl and Jasper looked at him, and at each other, and started to laugh. Steven joined in, the tension he’d felt since meeting Jasper on the cliff starting to melt away.  
When the laughs subsided, Steven looked around at the maze of black rock. “So…how do I get out of here?”  
“Um…” began Pearl uncertainly, but Jasper cut in. “There’s no need. Only your consciousness is here. We’ll find your body and wake you up in the real world.”  
She turned to Pearl and offered her her hand. “Let’s go back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The weird, watery dreamworld inside Malachite that Steven found in "Chille Tid" always struck me as a really neat concept. I like the idea that each fusion has its own inner world where its composite gems exist. The Eye belongs to Jasper and Pearl's fusion


	5. The woman

She walked with grace, and she walked with purpose. Each step sank several inches into the Earth but made no sound at all. She made no sound, except for the gentle billowing of her cape in the wind. Her eyes were focused on the warp pad ahead, but she tried to hold on to the feelings running across her skin. The soft crunch of rock underfoot, the gentle breeze…she had just been born, and this was her first perception of the land she had been born into.   
It wasn’t bad, she thought. Not bad at all. A gem could get used to…existing.  
But…she had obligations. No time to dally. The warp pad groaned under her weight when she stepped on, but it held, and in seconds, she was away.  
“So anyway, I got in contact with Carnetine and she said that if Pearl can’t get her to calm down than maybe some of the Betas can because they all used to be super cloooo….” Amethyst’s mouth dropped open as she arrived, her eyes wide and staring at the giant gem who had just materialized in the living room. In a second, her whip was in her hand and she had run up to the warp pad ready to fight.   
“Who are you? You can’t show up….” Amethyst’s eyes traveled over her face, to the two twinkling gems there…one on the nose, one on the forehead. “Pearl?”  
Behind her, Garnet reclined on the couch, an undoubtably smug smile on her face. “Like I was trying to tell you, you don’t have to worry about Jasper. Seems like she’s pretty happy in that fusion.” Garnet gestured at her, and the woman stifled an urge to roll her eyes. Jasper was right, Garnet was absolutely going to rub this in. But Pearl was right as well: given all the fool things Jasper had said to Garnet about fusion, the gem had a right to gloat a bit. Let her have her fun.  
There were other matters to attend to anyway. Amethyst was still staring at her with a shell-shocked expression, so the woman bent down and took the smaller gem’s hands in her own. “Garnet is correct, little one. Jasper is safe within me. But know that she…I…appreciate your kindness.”  
“Are we really just letting her in?” came a voice from the kitchen. Lapis stared at her from behind the counter. Peridot stood beside her with her mouth agape. “Whoa, Jasper is that really you—”  
“Yes it’s really her,” interrupted Lapis. She didn’t look amazed like the rest of them, but irritated. She glared up at the woman, the twin stones that glittered on her face. “She is our enemy. She said so herself! And we’re going to just let her in to Steven’s house because Pearl decided to fuse with her? Like she’s such a great judge?”  
“Lapis!” Garnet looked up. “I know you have a…complicated history with Jasper. But you will not go after Pearl. I’ve seen this fusion in my future vision and I believe she’s made the right choice. Anyway, this is Steven’s house, not yours. And it was Steven who invited her.”   
Garnet gestured towards the loft where Steven slept. The woman cocked her head. So it was Garnet who was responsible for Steven showing up inside her mind. She made a mental note to have a talk with the other gem after this was over. There was a discussion to be had about boundaries. In front of her, Lapis continued undaunted.  
“You think it’s really a good idea to make her more powerful than ever with this new fusion? Can I remind you of the last fusions she made? How she made Malachite to kill Steven and it almost managed to shatter Alexandrite? Or—”  
The woman sighed audibly, breaking Lapis off. She took a hesitant step off the warp pad and on to the wooden floorboards. They groaned audibly under her weight, but didn’t bend as she had feared—Bismuth did good work. More confident, she strode across the floor towards Lapis, ominous creaks and groans accompanying her every step. Tall for a gem but short for a fusion, the woman bent slightly until she was at eye level with the other gem and spoke in a soft, steady voice.  
“As I recall, you were part of Malachite too. You even forced Jasper to remain in that fusion, long after she begged you for release…long after Steven asked you to give up.” She kept Jasper’s rage out of her voice. Lapis was trying to bait her, to make her snap and show the other Crystal Gems that she was still an enemy. It was not going to work. “So if Malachite got loose and hurt the others, well, perhaps the blame should lie with you.”  
Lapis gritted her teeth but it seemed like she didn’t have a direct retort, so the woman continued. “And if you were about to mention Jasper’s ill-advised fusion with the corrupted gem, well, I will be the first to admit that it was foolish, and nasty, and reckless. I live with the consequences, as does she.” She closed her eyes and raised her hands to her head. The green horns left behind by Jasper’s corruption had turned a deep burnt red, and multiplied, so a crown of four of them pushed through her straw-colored hair. Similar red marks covered both of her thumbs, which ended in sharp claws. Opening her golden eyes again, she looked down. “It was an act of desperation, one which Jasper must apologize for, yes. But I am not desperate. And I do not apologize.”  
Her eyes met Lapis’s again, and for a second they just glared at each other. But something seemed to shift in the blue gems face and she said finally, in a less angry voice, “Just promise me one thing. Promise me that you don’t intend to hurt Steven or the Crystal Gems.”  
The woman considered this. It was not a friendly question, but not a hostile one either. “If you trust nothing else about me, or Jasper, trust that the son, and the friends, of Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz not only have nothing to fear from me, but…” she paused, remembering what Pearl and Jasper had talked about earlier, “…but can always depend on my care and protection. I promise you that.”  
At last, Lapis sighed and nodded. To the woman’s surprise, she extended her hand, and after a second, the woman took it in her own. Not a friendship, certainly, but a truce, and for now that was good enough.  
She stood up again and turned towards the stairs. “Now, Steven has spent enough time in my mind. It is time for me to wake him up.”  
There he was at the top of the stairs, sound asleep in his bed. How many times had Pearl watched him sleep here, filled with equal measure of sadness and uncertainty? How many times had Jasper seen his face and felt rage? All those memories swirled inside her, confusing and difficult to place. Pink Diamond, Rose Quartz, Steven Universe. She had never met a single one of those people, and two of them she never would. And yet those names were carved on her heart.   
The woman didn’t like that, being beholden to other people’s memories. But she couldn’t deny the feeling of warmth inside her when she looked down at the child, and her desire to meet him at last. She reached down and gently shook him by the shoulder.


	6. Tiger's Eye

“Emmmmmrg…just five more minutes,” Steven muttered, swiping a hand out at his alarm clock. But instead of hitting the snooze button, his hand smacked into a giant arm. Steven’s eyes shot open, suddenly remembering where he was, and the first thing he saw were two golden eyes looking back from above him.  
A smile bloomed across his face as he sat up, taking in the fusion in front of him. She was smaller than he had expected, only a little larger than Jasper was normally. In appearance, the fusion carried individual elements of both Pearl and Jasper. Like Jasper, she had dark striations crossing her body. But they seemed to have become symmetrical, and smoother at the edges. The gem had only two arms, but as Steven looked closer he saw that they were curiously unfused between the wrists and elbows, forming a lens-shaped gap in her lower arms. Her two golden eyes glittered like Pearl’s, but slanted like Jasper’s, and when she spoke, her voice was low but even.  
“How long did you intend to sleep, child?” she asked, speaking in a slight accent that Steven couldn’t quite place.  
“Sorry. I forgot! But wow…it’s so nice to meet you, um…”  
“You may address me as Tiger’s Eye,” her words were clipped and sharp, and she stared at him appraisingly, like she was trying to decide something about him.  
“Tiger’s Eye…?” Steven looked up at the gems on her head. They were now banded with the same glittering orange, gold and brown pattern as the walls of the slot canyon. It seemed like a good name. “Can I call you Tiger for short?”  
“For…short…?” She raised an eyebrow.  
“Like a nickname?” he said hopefully.  
Tiger hummed softly, then waved her hand. “Very well. Now, I believe Pearl promised you something, child?”  
Steven clapped his hands excitedly. “A story! What happened? How did you two fuse?”  
Smiling, Tiger’s Eye sat down on the floor. “Alright. It’s a long story, and it has to do with your mother. Are you ready?”


	7. Story for Steven

Pearl leapt off the cliffside, landing gracefully in the sand below. Beside her, she could see the crater that Jasper’s impact had left, and big footprints leading back to the house. Doubtlessly, Jasper was going for the warp pad.  
When she got to the door, it seemed Jasper had already left, so Pearl quickly stepped up to the pad and set the destination for the Beta Kindergarten. Then she stopped, considering. Jasper wasn’t stupid, if she really wanted to be left alone, she wouldn’t head to the last place she’d talked about. Pearl hummed with frustration, trying to search her memories of the war, six thousand years ago. Where would Jasper go? Did any other locations on this planet still hold meaning for her?  
Pink Diamond’s palanquin, maybe? There was no direct warp to that, though…and it didn’t exactly hold good memories for Jasper, even after finding out that Pink hadn’t really died there. Pearl felt the same way about it.  
Wait, that was it! Pearl had followed Jasper in the first place because of what she thought they had in common….so where would Pearl have gone, if she was in Jasper’s position? She fed the new location into the warp pad, and in a second, she was gone.  
When she arrived, the area around Rose’s fountain was still. The healed gems and the diamonds had left earlier that morning, and the only evidence they had been there at all were the three massive sets of footprints sunken into the stone floor. Pearl continued walking until the fountain itself came into sight, and was rewarded by the sight of one large figure perched on the edge of the water. Jasper looked up at the statue of Rose, its arms outstretched and tears constantly pouring down its face, with a look of longing that Pearl thought she recognized.  
“How did you find me? Why did you come here?” Jasper’s voice rang out suddenly, and Pearl jumped. She thought she’d been well-hidden in the shadows, but apparently not. Gathering her composure, she prepared what she wanted to say. It was so odd, to know so much about Jasper, to feel such a sense of…commonality with her…and to have never spoken to her before.  
“I used to come here,” she began, looking up at the Rose statue. “When I missed her. I thought you might be feeling the same way.”  
Jasper turned to her. “I know you from somewhere, don’t—” her eyes widened in sudden realization, and she looked at Pearl as if she were seeing her for the first time. “You…you were her Pearl. You were always beside her throne. I…I didn’t recognize you at all.”  
“Well,” Pearl said in a light tone as she sat down beside Jasper. “You’re not really supposed to notice a Pearl, not if she’s doing her job right.”  
Under the striation on her face, Jasper’s skin grew a darker orange and Pearl realized with a start that she was blushing. Jasper looked down, her face covered in shame. “You were her companion. I was so cruel to you the first time we met on Peridot’s ship…there really is nothing of hers that I haven’t tried to destroy, have I?”  
Pearl looked away uncomfortably. It was true that Jasper had terrified her the first time she’d appeared. Poofing Garnet, blackening Steven’s eye, locking her and Amethyst in the prison cells…she had been the polar opposite of the gentle, excited young gem Pearl remembered from her time with Pink Diamond. But…  
“You were only that way because you thought I’d helped kill Pink Diamond,” Pearl reminded her. “You were trying to…avenge her. I can respect that.”  
Jasper gave a humorless chuckle. “That’s a nice thought. But I think she would rather have had me just leave Earth and never return.”  
Pearl sighed. “I know how this seems, but Pink Diamond didn’t hate you, Jasper—"  
“It doesn’t matter!” interrupted Jasper angrily, speaking louder over Pearl’s protests. “The only thing I know is that she didn’t want me around. She made her judgement, and she was righ—”  
“Will you just stop for a moment!” shouted Pearl, surprising them both. She took a deep, shaking breath. “You were the one who said that I was her companion. I knew her better than you, so you should listen to what I have to say instead of just stewing over it. Rose…Pink…was complicated. She had her own reasons for not telling you and it wasn’t because she thought you were a bad gem or…wait. Maybe it’s better if I just show you.”  
Ignoring Jasper’s confusion, Pearl stood up and placed her hands on her glowing gem. A blue image of Pink Diamond on her throne filled the air. In her peripheral vision, she saw Jasper’s hands automatically move into the diamond salute. Pearl placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Just watch, okay? This is the truth as I saw it.”  
Above them, Pink Diamond bit her lip, then looked down at Pearl. “I was just thinking…” Pearl spoke the words, but Pink Diamonds lips moved in time to them, so Jasper wouldn’t be able to deny what was said. “I might have an idea to turn this around.”  
As the recording played, Jasper’s arms dropped slowly from the salute. She moved closer, reaching up to where her diamond sat, talking about her. “She…wanted to recruit me? But why…she never asked…I would’ve gone with her. I would have followed her anywhere.” Her shaking hands rose up to her gem. “I remember that day. When she healed my gem…she was so kind. When she smiled at me, I…” her voice shook, and she spoke the words that Pearl knew she would. “I knew I would have done anything for her.”  
Pearl didn’t reply, but spoke instead in Jasper’s voice. “My diamond, I was told you wished to see me?” Jasper whirled around as a younger version of herself entered the hologram. As the scene played out, her eyes widened in recognition.  
“That’s enough!” finished Pearl. “If we ask her to join the Rebellion, her life is over! She’ll have to choose between me and all the things she wants. All the things she deserves! I ruined the lives of all of the other Betas. She thanked me for not shattering them. She trusts me. I’m not going to do the same thing to her. That’s final.” The hologram froze on Pink Diamond’s face, still wet with tears, then the scene disappeared, leaving Pearl and Jasper alone in the dark.  
“She…” there was a sudden rumble as Jasper collapsed to her knees. The ground shook, and the water in the fountain gave a soft splash. “She was protecting me?  
Gently, Pearl wrapped her arms around the bigger gem’s shoulders. “She wanted to give you a future. She just didn’t understand that the kind of future you wanted…involved her.”  
For a second, they knelt on the ground in front of the fountain in silence. Then, to Pearl’s surprise, Jasper put one of her giant hands over Pearl’s. “The same thing happened to you, didn’t it? That’s why you come here. I guess we’ve got something in common.”  
Pearl was reminded vividly of when Jasper had first been corrupted. Kneeling in the Burning Room, arms wrapped around the bubble, feeling such a sad connection to the gem inside. Now she knelt in the same position, but this time the gem between her arms was alive and thinking, and Pearl was struck by the idea that after all the years since Rose’s loss, she finally had someone else who understood.


	8. Missing her

“So…Pearl still feels pretty unhappy about…me being here, huh?” Steven’s face had fallen as Tiger’s story had progressed, and now he looked awkwardly down at his lap. He wrung his hands together, thinking about what he had learned on Homeworld. That he wasn’t Rose, that Rose really was gone…  
He was knocked out of that reverie, literally, when a giant orange hand swept across his vision and lightly cuffed him on the ear. It didn’t hurt at all, but it was so surprising that he almost fell over. “Hey! That’s rud—” he started, looking back at Tiger’s Eye. But he fell silent when he turned and saw that Tiger’s face was inches from his own, and she stared intently at him. Her expression was serious, almost angry.  
“Don’t you start with that. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t you dare think that Pearl doesn’t love you dearly. It makes no more sense than Jasper thinking that Pink hated her, and I won’t stand for it.” Steven blinked up at her. Pearl never spoke this directly to him…but with Jasper’s influence, it made sense. Tiger continued, “Rose made her choice. She loved you, and so does Pearl. So much, child. You have no idea. You make her so proud, and so happy.”  
She reached out one giant hand to Steven’s cheek. It was such a gentle touch, at odds with her huge size. “But she loved Rose too, and she’s allowed to miss her. She felt like she couldn’t talk about it, not with you or the other gems. She didn’t want to burden you with the fact that she couldn’t seem to move on…you all were happy and she wanted to be happy with you.”  
“But Jasper wasn’t happy. She couldn’t move on either. So Pearl could…talk to her, honestly. About Rose, and what she really meant to her. To both of them. It was in that connection that I first began to exist.” She paused. “Do you want to hear the rest of the story?”  
Steven smiled again, and nodded.


	9. A dance for two

“Honestly, I was jealous at first. I liked being the only one who knew. I liked feeling like I was the one who was closest to her.” Pearl laughed a little. Saying it here, outside, it sounded so ridiculous. She lay on her back next to Jasper, looking up at the stars above the fountain. They’d started talking, just reminiscing, about their memories of Rose. It had felt so good to finally say some of the things she’d kept inside for so long—how much she missed Rose, how angry she was at her. How much she still loved her. Jasper was so easy to talk to about it.   
The ground rumbled beside her as Jasper laughed too. “I know just what you mean,” she replied. “When you were alone with her, it was like you were the only person in the world. That time she fixed my gem, I felt so special…that she had picked me out of all the others to trust with her secret. Even before that…like when she tried to teach me to dance…”  
Pearl sat up suddenly. “She taught you to dance?”  
Jasper grinned sheepishly. “Tried to. I wasn’t exactly graceful. I kept stepping on her feet. She thought it was funny, though.”  
“I can’t believe she taught you to dance!” Pearl clapped her hands together. “I was the one who taught her. She said she had always loved watching us Pearls dance and wanted to know how. You don’t have to worry though…she wasn’t exactly graceful to start with either.”  
That earned another laugh from Jasper. “I always wondered how a Diamond learned to dance! It happened right after I joined her private guard…I asked her about the balls back on Homeworld, and she told me she could show me how the dance worked. I thought she was going to call you in for a demonstration, but all of a sudden, she had her hands around my waist and we were dancing together! I learned to expect that from her, but at the time, I was so surprised to see a Diamond acting like that. But…that was how she pulled you in. You never knew what she was going to do next.” she paused. “But you always wanted to see more.”  
They lapsed into silence for a moment, then Pearl said, “So did you ever go?”  
“Go?”  
“You know. To a ball.” Pearl leaned over. “Not Pink’s, of course, but there would have been smaller affairs on Homeworld.”  
“No.” Jasper’s voice came out unexpectedly gruff.  
“Oh.” said Pearl uncomfortably, and Jasper continued.  
“And I’ve never been to the Golden Spire, or the first Kindergarten, or the Cathedral,” she said, her hands moving up over her face. “I wanted to do all that with her.”  
“Yeah,” Pearl replied softly. The joking atmosphere dissipated as they both remembered why they had been talking about Pink in the first place. Pearl’s eyes flicked back to Jasper, who expression once again looked dark. She couldn’t help wanting to cheer her up, and suddenly, she had an idea.  
“Do you want to now?”  
Jasper looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “Do what?”  
Pearl stood up, dusting off her pants and straightening her jacket. She reached a hand down to Jasper. “Do you want to dance?”


	10. A dance for one

“Ah! Er, sorry,” Jasper jerked away, narrowly avoiding stepping on Pearl’s feet for the second time. Pearl just smiled at her. She hadn’t been sure how Jasper would react when she asked her to dance, if it would have made her more upset. But to her pleasant surprise, Jasper had nervously agreed, and while she was awkward and apologetic, she seemed to be enjoying herself.  
Pearl was too. It had been years—fifteen years, actually—since she’d danced like this. It wasn’t like dancing with Rose. By the end of their time together, Rose had become an expert dancer, as graceful and elegant as Pearl herself. Jasper, on the other hand, tripped and stumbled, muttering hasty apologies. But it was nice nonetheless. She swayed with Jasper in the moonlight, the gem’s hands large against hers, and it felt peaceful.  
It wasn’t like being with Rose. But she liked it all the same.  
In front of her, Jasper flashed her a nervous smile and said hesitantly, “you know, I’m glad…I didn’t leave. I…thank you, for this. I’ve felt so…alone, for so long and you—”  
Pearl felt warm, and light, and then realized with a start why. Her and Jasper’s gems suddenly glowed brilliantly in the darkness, and the borders between their hands seem to blur...  
“NO!” roared Jasper, and the fusion was broken. Naked panic on her face, she shoved Pearl away. The smaller gem was pushed back by several feet, and Jasper backed away from her even further, eyes wide with horror.  
“Oh, no,” whispered Pearl, suddenly understanding. “Oh, no, Jasper, I am so sorry!” Pearl could have smacked herself. She’d just let herself fall into that fusion, as easily as she would have with Rose. But Jasper wasn’t like Rose. She wasn’t like anyone. She’d been trapped in a hateful fusion for months, forced to be part of Malachite while the horrible creature was held in Lapis’s chains at the bottom of the ocean. And here Pearl was, bringing Jasper into another fusion without a thought, without even asking.  
“I’m so sorry, Jasper, believe me, I didn’t mean to hurt you!” she yelled desperately. But Jasper, instead of looking devasted or violated or whatever Pearl thought she would, stared at her in confusion. “What?”  
“I…I thought,” stuttered Pearl. Now she was confused, too. “When you pulled away I thought…that you were scared it would be like with Lapis, that-that I was trying to hurt you or trap you…”  
“What? No, I…” Jasper looked frustrated. “I don’t think you—I mean, I think I trust you.” Pearl couldn’t help a slight blush rising to her cheeks at that, but Jasper didn’t seem to notice. “I thought you wouldn’t want to fuse with me.”  
Pearl cocked her head. “I mean, I hadn’t planned on it, but I…I think I would like to. If you’re alright with it,” she added hastily, but Jasper shook her head.  
“Of course I’m not all right with it! Look at me!” She spread her arms wide, gesturing to the emerald green horns growing out of her head. “The last fusion I was in was with that corrupted gem and it…infected me. I’m off-color now. Like all the other Betas.”  
She sat down heavily on the edge of the fountain. “Not even all the diamonds could fix it completely. And if you fuse with me, you might become off-color too. I had to stop you before you could be infected.”  
A moment of silence passed, and then Pearl burst out laughing. Jasper whirled around in confusion, then anger.  
“Are you not taking this seriously? I just told you you could become off-color!” An angry blush was building in Jasper’s face, and Pearl tried to quiet her laughter.  
“I’m sorry-hah-it’s just, I could never have guessed that that is what was bothering you,” Pearl’s laughter faded. “You don’t have to…protect me. I don’t care about that. If there’s one thing I learned from all my time with Rose, it’s that none of that stuff matters. I figured you’d’ve got that by now too. I mean—didn’t you make up with Amethyst? She’s off color, but I love her and she’s a great gem. Those corruption marks don’t make you less of a gem either.”  
“I…it’s different when it’s something that I would be…doing to you.” Her voiced dropped. “I…like you, Pearl, I don’t want to hurt you.”  
“Jasper…” Pearl said softly. “I…you don’t have to protect me. I can make my own choices.” She put emphasis behind those words, and the from the flash of recognition in Jasper’s eyes she knew that the other gem had understood the parallel between her and Pink Diamond.  
“Even if those marks are contagious, I don’t mind the idea of being off-color. I think they’re kind of cute, actually.” She stepped closer to Jasper, gently patting one of the green horns. Jasper blushed and turned her head, but didn’t pull away. “I…I’d really like to try fusing with you, Jasper. I like you too. It…it could be fun to see what we make together.”  
Gently, she extended her hand towards Jasper again. The other gem hesitated for a moment, then twined her fingers in Pearl’s, their hands joining. That feeling came back, the warmth and the lightness, and in a second, Pearl and Jasper were gone.


	11. The Eye, Reprise

Two hands reached towards the stars above. Then slowly, gracefully, they swept down, through red horns and golden hair, to the two gems on her face. Her gems.  
“Hello, world,” she whispered, and her voice was soft, barely louder that the burbling fountain beside her. “You can call me Tiger’s Eye.”  
“Tiger’s Eye…” repeated Pearl quietly. She looked out through the fusion’s eyes, seeing the world for the first time, and she looked through her own eyes at the world inside the fusion. She had been part of many fusions, but this one’s inner world was unusually extensive. They stood in a strange, twisting tunnel of gold light. The windswept shape reminded her of something…  
“The Beta Kindergarten,” said a breathless voice beside her. Pearl looked towards it to see Jasper, cast in golden light, looking around in wonder. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? I didn’t think it would look like this…inside the corrupted fusion, it looked like nothing. Like white static. And inside Malachite, it was this horrible ocean. Just water everywhere, and it kept pulling me in. That’s what Lapis wanted. But this is…”  
“This is something you built,” Pearl finished, smiling up at her. Looking around, she could see traces of her room in the temple as well—the starry blue sky above, the smooth, glassy appearance of the rock. “Something we built.”  
“And Tiger's Eye is too,” Pearl continued. She knew both she and Jasper could see through the new fusion’s eyes, feel the warm breeze on its skin. “Shall we…?”  
Jasper hesitated, then smiled and took Pearl’s hand. In the real world, Tiger’s Eye smiled too. But it was a different smile, not hesitant but confident. She raised her hands out in front of her with a slow and eerie grace, and the gem on her nose glowed. Jasper’s Crash Helmet materialized on her head, glittering gold in the moonlight. Tiger’s hands wrapped around it, first gently, exploring its contours and edges. Then she abruptly squeezed.  
The helmet’s visor shattered, and a shrieking sound of stressed metal filled the air as Tiger’s hands crushed the helmet like tinfoil. In the gold canyon, Jasper looked at Pearl in panic.  
“What is she doing? Has she corrupted? Why—” Pearl cut her off with a wave of her hand.  
“Neither of your fusions properly created a weapon before, now that I think about it. But this is normal. Tiger’s Eye is going to make something for herself from our weapons.” Jasper still looked worried. “Just watch,” Pearl continued.  
In the real world, Tiger had managed to crush the entire helmet between her hands. When she opened them, the old helmet was gone. It had been reduced to its very basic essentials—a hard, four-edged golden stone. Good for crushing, good for protection. Strong and sturdy with a lustrous gleam. Smiling at this, Tiger put the stone in her pocket and summoned Pearl’s trident. She crushed in the two side blades, and twisted the spear around itself, like wringing out laundry, until she had removed its decorations and frivolous add-ons. Like the golden stone taken from the Crash Helmet, the twisted white staff in her hands had been reduced to its most basic state. It spoke of elegance and deadly precision. Tiger considered this for a moment, then pulled the golden stone from her pocket and ran it through with the spear.  
There was a blinding flash of light and both Pearl and Jasper’s weapons were gone. In place of the helmet and trident, Tiger held a single, glittering golden mace. Its twisting metal shaft ran up through a diamond-shaped head that sparkled with power and malice. Efficient, elegant, destructive—Tiger liked her new gem weapon very much.  
She twirled it gently around her head, and then began a slow, graceful dance. It wasn’t the delicate, ballet-like movements of Pearl’s dance, nor did it entirely resemble the rough, sudden movements that Jasper was used to fighting with. The slow movements faded into each other, each beautiful, each radiating power and confidence.  
It kind of looks like tai chi, thought Pearl, remembering the martial arts videos Steven liked to watch. Slowed down like this, it resembled a dance, but Pearl knew that at full speed the movements would be deadly in combat.  
Beside her, Jasper’s face was lit with amazement. “I can’t—I can’t believe we made this. She’s wonderful.”  
“That means you’re wonderful,” Pearl replied. She smiled at Jasper and was surprised and cheered to see that Jasper was smiling back at her. For the first time since Pearl had seen her in the palanquin all those years ago, the other gem looked earnestly, completely happy. Her smile, finally uninhibited by the sadness and loneliness that had been plaguing her, was dazzling, almost as much as Rose’s had been. Pearl felt a slight blush come into her cheeks at the sight.  
Suddenly, Jasper laughed, big belly-shaking laughs that reverberated in the narrow canyon. She fell against the glassy wall and slid down it like the strength had left her body, until she lay on the ground against it. Tiger kept dancing, but Pearl hurriedly knelt down beside Jasper, looking worried.  
“Jasper are you alright? What’s wrong?” She burst out.  
But Jasper just smiled. “Nothing’s wrong. This is…perfect. This has been the best night of my life. I found out Pink Diamond wasn’t shattered, and that she cared about me after all, and I get to be part of this amazing fusion, and…I got to meet you.” Pearl opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of a response to that.  
“Everything that’s happened tonight, it’s been because of your kindness. It’s funny,” she said, shaking her head, sending her golden hair tumbling down her shoulders. “I used to think that I would never be happy again after I lost Pink Diamond, that I could never…connect with another gem like I did with her. But…it feels so good, being here with you. With Tiger's Eye.”  
Pearl smiled at that. “Don’t forget. You’re half of her. She’s wonderful because we did connect, and you were part of that. It wasn’t just me. This night, this fusion…it happened because of both of us. And I…I really loved it too, Jasper.” She laid down on the floor of the canyon beside Jasper. In front of her, the big gem, closed her eyes contentedly.  
“This is a good fusion, isn’t it? We’re good together. I never saw that coming,” she said slowly. “I just…I never knew it could feel this good. I thought it was meant to hurt, that it had to hurt so you could be strong. But I feel stronger than I ever have, and…I feel so happy here.”  
“Oh, Jasper,” the sadness in Jasper’s voice broke her heart. “This is how it’s supposed to feel.”  
She looked into Jasper’s eyes for a moment. Pearl couldn’t deny that what Jasper said affected her deeply. She had felt the same way when she lost Rose, that she would never experience that kind of happiness again. But here, and now, beside Jasper of all gems, she thought she felt it again. Closing her eyes, she bent down towards Jasper to kiss the other gem…


	12. We'll meet again

“So I really did interrupt at the wrong time, huh?” said Steven uncomfortably. “Um…sorry about that.”  
Tiger laughed. “Ah, perhaps. But I would have had to introduce myself to you eventually. It was as good a time as any.”  
Steven smiled. “So are you going to stay fused then? Like Garnet?”  
Tiger cocked her head, considering. “I like existing. I like it very much. I expect we will see a lot of each other in the near future, child. But…” she shifted slightly and elicited a series of strained creaks and pops from the floorboards below her. “It may not be practical. And Pearl and Jasper each have much to do in this world themselves." She jerked her head towards the stairs, where Lapis and the other Crystal Gems waited below. “There are apologies…truces to be made, and I want no part in it. Not to mention, I’m sure you’d miss Pearl if she disappeared inside me for too long. But I expect before long, the two of them will fuse again, yes?”  
Tiger’s Eye gently tapped a giant finger on Steven’s nose, making him giggle, and then her body was engulfed in a bright light. When the light cleared, she was gone, and in her place stood Pearl and Jasper, their hands around each other’s waists.  
“Ah!” gasped Pearl, a blush rising to her cheeks. She moved automatically out of Jasper’s embrace, but then reached out a hand to her. Jasper looked a little embarrassed as well, but accepted it, and the two of them turned to face Steven. From the bed, Steven grinned at them and clapped.  
“Wow!” he said delightedly. “That was really cool! I like her!”  
Pearl caught Jasper’s eyes and smiled. “Yes, I…I like her too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is curious, no, Jasper's corruption scars aren't contagious, so Pearl missed out on her chance for cute little horns.


	13. Concepts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Concept art of Tiger's Eye from before and after "Change Your Mind." You can find more art of her, Jasper, and Pearl on my tumblr/deviantart accounts, wendywhite13.


End file.
